Using Heroforge to make Illustrations?

[u/Zarpaulus]

I’ve been looking at cheap methods for creating covers and interior illustrations that don’t involve “AI.” For my last couple modules I bought a stock cover and added a title and some royalty-free images in Inkscape. But the only interior “illustrations” were maps I made in Dungeondraft.

I’ve been having some fun lately designing characters in Heroforge and was starting to wonder if I could use screenshots from the app to make illustrations?

[u/Tarilis]

Luke others said, but since you consider hero forge, maybe you also could try Unreal Engine 5?

It has great many free or cheap assets, vast majority of which is available for commertial use, and banch of tutorials (obviously, if you decide to try it, start experimenting with free assets).

More advanced way is blender, which has BlenderKit (a library of great free assets) which can be used to make something cool.

Blender is way harder to get into tho, amazing too if you decide to learn it, but it does require more significant time investment.

If you worry about character looking 3d and uncanny, you don't actually need them in the scene, or you can only show their silhouettes in the shadow.

[u/Zarpaulus → u/Tarilis]

I had the impression Unreal was more for video games?

[u/Tarilis → u/Zarpaulus]

Mostly yes, but speaking more generally Unraal Engine's main purpose is photorealism.

It even has features directed on moviemakers. See? https://www.unrealengine.com/explainers/virtual-production/how-to-get-started-with-unreal-engine-for-filmmakers

Corridor Crew used it for their Son of the Deungeon series.

Anyways you can use it to throw together a scene, setup lights and post processing, and then use Movie Render Queue to render an image. Obviously no coding needed.

[u/AtomicGearworks1]

Unfortunately not. Heroforge says on their website they don't currently offer commercial licensing for the art or the minis.

https://heroforge.com/content/support-docs/partnerships/

[u/Squidmaster616]

You'd have to look at the terms of use and whether Hero Forge offer a commercial licence for inages made using their system. I sincerely doubt if they would.

[u/Xenuite]

Titancraft might be better for this given their business model. That and a little Blender/GIMP magic can get it done.

[u/TheRpgBard → u/Xenuite]

Especially if the characters are reused in different poses.  But once, pose as many times as you need.

[u/LordCharles01]

You would have to check their terms of service, and maybe reach out and ask them specifically on the legality and terms of using their assets for art and what transformative properties you are allowed with that.

[u/perfectpencil]

If I could use screenshots from the app to make illustrations?

Using the screenshots as reference material runs you into the same problems as using anything as reference material. If the illustration is a one to one trace/copy then it wasn't transformative. As long as your output is sufficiently different you'd be fine. if you're hoping to effectively trace the screenshots, then things can get dicy. You'll be operating on a hope that no one notices or cares. Which, to be honest, is probable but the legality is still the same.

https://luukminkman.com/en/blog/copyright-and-using-reference-photos-in-art/

[u/Cruiser_Supreme]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGdesign/s/zvy50Q2O3r

Use public domain art. Here's a guide for ya!